Urge Governors to Stand Up for Patient Rights

May 19, 2011 | Don Duncan

In the past few months, United States Attorneys General in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Rhode Island, and Vermont have issued letters threatening federal action against any entity, including state employees, participating in state sanctioned medical cannabis programs. While our community has seen these types of letters under previous administrations, it is disappointing to see President Obama sanction this behavior.

While many promises have been made by Obama to end raids on the medical cannabis community, these DOJ threat letters are yet another tactic of the federal government to interfere with patients’ right to safe access. ASA recently issued Obama’s Medical Cannabis Report Card, showing he has failed at improving conditions for our community. These threat letters are further evidence of the broken promises of the current administration and proof that our community is under attack.

Over the next couple of weeks, our community must call upon our state representatives for leadership. We must urge our governors, whether they have received a threat letter or not, to join Americans for Safe Access in a push back against the U.S. Attorneys who have issued these threat letters against our community.

In order to make this campaign a success, your governors needs to hear from you. As a constituent, ask for his or her leadership against federal interference. Call your governor today and use the following script. Please find contact information for your governor below. The District of Columbia should reach out to Mayor Gray whose number is listed below, and also included in the electronic action alert.

Governor (or Mayor for DC Residents)—

As a concerned medical cannabis community member and your constituent, I am worried about the impact these threat letters from the Department of Justice and the potential for federal interference will have on safe access to medical cannabis in my state. Letters have been issued to eight states so far, and we need to send a message asserting our state’s right to safe access. We need you the lead the charge to end federal interference and work toward creating policies that will resolve the federal conflict once and for all.